Foxan's beading blog

Saturday, February 16, 2013

The most frequently asked question about this piece of mine is "Where is the other one?". The answer is - it is in the progress. Please do not ask when it will be finished.... ;o)

I made it for the Battle of Beadsmith 2012. It is a Facebook group started by Steven Weiss of the Beadsmith company (which needs no presentation, right?). Last year I was too busy to blog about it, but now it is 6 o'clock in the morning, hubby is on his way to the airport and kids are still in bed - with another words it is a perfect time to blog.

So, here is my Freya. More info can be found on WiKi, but the point is that Freya is a norse/viking female deity, sometimes taking bird form. I figured, what speaks Norse better than grass-green colors and ice-cold labradorites? For a contrast, I added some amber (guess it looks like real resin on trees). ;o)

The shoe is not embroidered, it is beadwoven. I was weaving and sowing the beadwork onto the textile almost simultaneously to follow the shape of it. Feathers were kindly donated by a rooster, totally violence-free.

My SIL was taking these pics with her fancy camera and my blond Swedish MIL has offered to be a foot model.

Sunday, February 3, 2013

All over the sudden the stars came into a favorable alignment, providing me with a combination of aa free moment, enough energy, will to write, and caring enough to keep my blog going.

I am not kidding about working, though - guess I shared with you my career change. Bye-bye research career, hello working in management. And my boys are growing and require quite some attention. And, finally, I am taking care of my health and working out several times a week. All that means that I do not bead every day anymore. But my heart does still belong to beads.

For those who would like to meet in person this year, I will have a exhibition together with Anna Lindell in Stockholm in May the 11-17th, more info coming later. I will be also teaching classes at Bead Lovers Meet in Lund in March 8-11 and Beader's Best Fair in Hamburg in August (http://perlen-poesie.de/en/one-kind). Guess there will be more exhibitions and classes, but those above are definitely set.

Well, enough writing. Let me show you some beads in action.

The pictures below are from a commission I had last summer. I met this lady at my first Stockholm exhibition. This necklace went all the way to Russia, and I am very glad for it. The given task was: rose , silver and greys; ribbons instead of a clasp and Art Deco inspiration.

This was one of my first sketches, but the customer preferred one below:

To us both it was more Nouveau than Deco, but oah well ;o) It was a pleasure working with this customer, she has a great taste!

Here is the final look:

A friend has suggested to call it "Ashes of Roses", and guess it is quite an appropriate name for this necklace. The roses of rhodochrosite are surrounded by silvery grass, lilly of the valley branches and some simple leaves.

And here be some close-ups:

I am happy for this creation of mine, it's owner will take a good care of it.

'Nuff for today, folks! See you around, however uncertain how soon... :)

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Yes, I am still alive. And still beading.
Short summary: my old contract as a researcher has expired - they had no money to keep me - (because of this country's idiotic policy of employing scientists) - was at home for two months - got an exciting new job and a permanent position (screw the Swedish scientific employment policy once again) - my baby-boy (oldest) has started school - I AM HAPPY and BEADING. AGAIN. Finally.

Last year was VERY stormy, but I have survived. :) MANY things have happened. I started an education as a silversmith (besides having a house, husband, two kids, daytime job and a company to run). Here are couple of examples of me learning playing with metal:

Then, I got involved into the Battle of Beadsmith, got to the round two (and am very glad about it).

I will blog about this shoe some time later. I hope :)

Then, I went to Hamburg Bead Fair and met some nice people, couple of my old fans (was great to meet you, guys!) and even couple of beading celebs - Melissa Grakowski, Zoya Gutina and Huib Petersen.

At the same time, I had yet another personal exhibition,

finished some cool commissioned pieces,

and started collaboration with (read "could not keep away from buying from") Golem Studios.

Anyhow, I hope to be back soon with more exciting stories and many more pictures!

HUGE hug, I missed your support!

/Olga

P.S. I have not checked my blog-connected e-mail for as long as I was away. Terribly sorry for not answering in time.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Today I wanted to tell you about BeadCrafty.com, a lovely web-shop located in the UK. As many of you know, having a beading blog pays back. Now and then many of us are getting requests from different companies/shops to review their products, test their service, etc. And we do so, gladly.

This time was no different. BeadCrafty has contacted me already before the Christmas, asking to write about them in exchange for their materials. Surely, I said yes! It was exactly at the time when I was writing a makramé tutorial for my beading class. So, naturally, I have immediately imagined a macramé project and picked beads and cords for it.

The webshop of BeadCrafty is easy to navigate. It is quite funky, refreshingly colorful and straight to the point. All beads are offered in small packs, which is perfect for people like myslef who is using tonns of different kinds of beads in the projects. Sometimes I find it expensive and unnecessary to buy a string of beads when you need just 5 or 10. If you are like me - this shop is for you! The package came just couple of days after ordering, safely and beautifully wrapped.

There were beads for two projects in my order. Both inspired by tropics: one was fuschsia-pink, and the other was aqua-teal. First was supposed to have this cool polymer bead as the focal, and the second would evolve around this paua-cab.

I got to work as soon as the beads have arrived, but blimey... The cord that I ordered did not fit the holes of the beads that I have ordered. This happens, right? It would only fit 8 mm agates and Swarovski crystals! Back to the drawing board. I thought I'd make a strung necklace. Soon I've realised that it was going to be boring. And not me. Then exhibition came, then Christmas orderes, then an "urgent" cooperation with the BeadSmith (which I will blog about a bit later), my camera went on strike... And the project was left behind. Until two days ago, when I got a very kind e-mail from BeadCrafty asking if I was still going to write the review.OUPS! SORRY GUYS!!! :blushing:

So, I picked up the beads yesterday.And from now on there will be just a very few words and many pictures.

I cut the necklace embryo and put it onto the foundation. Mind though - colour of the focal is WRONG in this light.

Totally unglamourously fixed it with scotch while stitching it to the foundation. Then scotch got removed.

After that, I added larger beads: agates, faux pearls, shell pearls and Swarovski, 3-12 mm in diameter (95% of beads are still from BeadCrafty!). At this point, I had to stop and go get kids from the daycare.

Now, these are fresh pictures of today's progress:

Yes, I cannot really live without seed beads. These are from my own stash (Jablonex).

Filling gaps between large beads with freeform peyote.

Adding texture and 3D-feel.

Well, there is circa 1/3 of the necklace left to be finished. Hope to get back to it next week - my weekend is going to be quite hectic.

All pictures were taken with my iPhone. MUCH better picks are promised: upon finishing the necklace will be taken for a real photo-session at my sister-in-law's.

Thank you BeadCrafty for patience. And wonderful beads. And this cool opportunity.

Disclamer: yes, I got beads in exchange for writing this review. No, I am not lying - their webshop IS good, at least in my humble opinion.